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Alternative & Authentic Assessment Strategies
Creating courses with diverse teaching methods challenges both students and instructors. While course outcomes remain consistent for all students, activities and assignments may differ throughout the course. Assessment strategies can vary depending on the assignments, but formative and summative assessments should still measure student achievements in the course.
Flexibility
Offering students flexible assignment options, whether through task selection or flexible deadlines, helps support those facing a multitude of new struggles. This flexibility aligns with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, detailed further in this, Universal Design for Learning article.
Empathy
Showing empathy significantly supports students in reaching their educational goals, so consider incorporating deadline extensions and alternative assessment options when revising your course requirements.
Communication & Feedback
Effective communication is critical when making any assessment modifications. Using multiple communication methods ensures students understand course expectations. Useful methods include Blackboard announcements (posted and sent by email), syllabus, rubrics, FAQs discussion forum, lesson/weekly unit descriptions with outcomes, and concise overview videos of expectations.
Tool Tips to Provide Feedback to Students
- Rubrics: an online set of criteria for students' work that includes descriptions of levels of performance quality (Blackboard Learn Original Rubrics tool or attach a Word document of the rubric to the assignment)
- Annotations: notes or comments with suggestions for improvements and good work. (Blackboard Bb Annotate within the Assignment tool)
- Audio: add audio feedback by recording a short message in YuJa Lecture Capture, Video Recording, and Storage and send it (privately) to the student in the Gradebook assignment section. The sound of your voice engages the student in what you are saying and “humanizes” your presence in grading. Blackboard also has an audio recording option for feedback.
- Video: same as the audio, by adding video, you just talk to the student. Another idea is to open up the student’s digital assignment and record your screen while you scroll through the document, commenting on different points. This helps students to focus on what they did well and what needs improvement. This is a great video from a professor at Kansas State, Make Super Simple Videos for Teaching
- Peer review: Blackboard has features available for adding peer reviewing to assignments, journals, groups, and discussions
Incorporating formative assessments throughout the course and seeking student feedback on their experiences actively engages learners in the process. This demonstrates how vital students are to creating a successful course. Additional information on formative assessment appears in the alternative assessments section below.
Academic Integrity and Rigor
While flexibility and adaptability are essential throughout the semester, academic integrity and rigor should stay consistent. The following suggested strategies help ensure students understand the work required to achieve course outcomes.
Suggestions
- Content Selection: Consider what content connects most directly to your learning outcomes. Evaluate whether you need to include everything or if students would benefit from covering less material in greater depth. Let your outcome guide these decisions.
- Flexibility and options: Provide students with assessment choices to reduce their stress while still measuring their strengths and learning. Possibly a project, paper, adjusting test time, or group work.
- Clear Expectations: Add Rubrics to assignments to clarify expectations for students. Rubrics help students identify key assignment elements and set achievable goals for their work.
- Online Assessment: Move assessments to online formats so both remote and in-person students can complete assignments, quizzes, exams, and projects within Blackboard.
Alternative & Authentic Assessments
Consider your course size, exam formats, and learning outcomes to determine if you can reduce multiple choice questions and incorporate alternative assessment methods. Options include papers, videos, individual or group projects, research studies, charts, and case studies. Which assessment types best align with your outcomes and provide authentic, meaningful demonstrations of deep learning?
Examples
- Formative Assessments can address various course components, not solely the content you are teaching. Examples include:
- Self-Check Quizzes: Ungraded quizzes that allow students to assess their own learning progress
- Low-Stakes Quizzes: Graded quizzes with opportunities to drop the lowest scores to reduce student stress
- Interactive Polling: PointSolutions questions during class to gauge student understanding at key moments
- Course Feedback Surveys: Blackboard forms to gather ongoing feedback about course effectiveness
- Video Quizzes: Creating YuJa Video Quizzes which features short videos with embedded quiz questions
- Blackboard Discussions: Versatile, interactive spaces used for extending guest speaker conversations, facilitating peer support through student-generated Q&A, and rotating weekly student-led guided discussions with summarized responses
- Classroom Assessment Techniques CATS: Low to high stake Ideas from Angelo & Cross, including muddiest point quizzes, one-minute papers, and think-pair-share activities
- Summative Assessments typically include high-stakes midterm and final exams, which are the most common evaluation methods in courses. Higher-level courses often incorporate additional summative elements like research papers and projects. The following examples show other summative assessment methods:
- Take-Home Exams: Open-book assessments with flexible deadlines and no time limits that include data sets, complex questions, comparisons, and synthesis requiring original thinking rather than copied responses
- Case Studies: Analytical assignments that develop students’ reflection and contrast skills through real-world scenario examination
- Projects: Comprehensive assignments that demonstrate student mastery through applied learning and creative problem-solving
- Portfolios: Collections of student work, including semester-long reflective Blackboard journals that document learning progress throughout the course
- Video Projects: Creative final assignments where students demonstrate knowledge through multimedia presentations and explanations
Resource Best Practices in Alternative Assessments - Ryerson University Learning & Teaching Office
Quizzes and Exams
- Blackboard - Tests, Pools, and Surveys
- Many different question types
- Random blocks of questions are displayed
- Pools of questions based on chapter, lesson, theme
- Timed exams and password protected